Delta introduced a new financial wellness program this month tailored to meet the needs of its international employees. The new program, created in partnership with financial wellness vendor nudge, offers localized financial education courses along with a monetary incentive equivalent to $1,000USD in buying power. The international program will operate alongside Delta’s emergency savings and financial education program for domestic employees that successfully launched earlier this year. The two programs together cover nearly all of Delta’s more than 90,000 employees around the world. 

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Delta enhances popular $1K emergency savings program with more flexibility, quicker access

Delta has enhanced the popular employee emergency savings and financial education program launched earlier this year with a more streamlined education experience and quicker access to the up to $1,000 in rainy-day funds.

“As with our culture of safety and service, Delta’s desire to support the well-being of our people spans every corner of our global network,” said Joanne Smith, E.V.P. and Chief People Officer. “Financial wellness plays a major role in everyone’s overall health and wellness, which is why we are thrilled to offer a financial education program that caters to our hardworking Delta people based around the world.”    

“The need for improved financial education is universal and our work with Delta shows that employers can play a big part to help,” said Tim Perkins, co-founder, nudge. “nudge is proud to work in partnership with Delta to better the financial wellness of its employees around the world.”  

HOW THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM WORKS 

The new program, available to all international employees below the director level, is powered by the nudge online platform. Through their individual nudge profile, participants must first complete a confidential online financial wellness assessment called a Financial Health Checkup followed by 11 personalized financial wellness courses called Stories.  

Participants have the opportunity to earn a monetary incentive equal to the buying power of $1,000USD that is paid in the employee’s local currency.  

The incentive is broken down into two equal payouts: 

1. Employees receive the first payout after completing the Financial Health Checkup and five Stories. 

2. Employees receive the second payout after completing an additional six Stories. 

Where allowable by law, Delta will pay estimated taxes on the employee’s behalf so they can benefit from the entirety of the financial incentive.   

INVESTING IN FINANCIAL WELLNESS 

In January 2023, Delta introduced its emergency savings and financial education program for US employees in partnership with Fidelity Financial and Operation Hope. Since then, more than 33,000 eligible US employees have enrolled in the emergency savings program designed to help Delta people strengthen their financial wellness through online instruction, one-on-one coaching and an emergency savings safety net. Of those enrolled, more than 15,000 people have completed the entire program and earned the full $1,000 available through the program. 

As with the new international program, the domestic program is available to employees below the director level, including pilots. The US program allows participants to choose from three paths based on their personal goals and financial situation followed by individualized coaching sessions from Fidelity Investments or Operation HOPE. 

Participating employees receive $750 from Delta deposited directly into the Fidelity Investments emergency savings account opened as part of the program. In addition, Delta matches up to $250 of the employee’s personal contributions to the same account and covers estimated taxes so the employee can access the full $1,000. The Fidelity account comes with a no-cost debit card which gives our people easy, immediate access to their emergency savings. 

According to a survey of participants from the first half of the year, there was a 66% increase in people who felt in control of their financial situation after going through the program. There was also an incredible 140% increase in people who felt in control of their ability to save for a goal other than an emergency. 

ABOUT NUDGE 

Nudge provides localized content to nearly every country, with the content created and curated by professionals within each country; furthermore, the stories range from general topics (e.g., budgeting) to focused (e.g., talking to teenagers about money) and will be self-selected by the participants. Additionally, upon initial access to the nudge portal, participants will be asked to choose topics of personal finance that are of interest or relevance to them, which allows nudge to suggest content thereafter. The result of this should be relevant content being available to the entirety of our population.